Sunday, 8 April 2012

H for H20

Slight cheat
but this blog is about water or H20 and
as a Water Aid supporter this is a topic dear to my heart. Here at least I can lift my
head up and say I live in a house which has replaced the bath with a shower. I
have no dishwasher and no garden sprinkler and a water economical toilet. I
save 12 litres of water by turning off the tap when I am cleaning my teeth. But
I expect I am still close to the average English water use of 150 litres of
water every day – if I had to walk 5 miles with that on my back I sure wouldn’t
use that much!

Rob and Goobs blogspot - carrying water

Not only is
water not as abundant as you might think it also uses energy and increases
emissions of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.

One in six of the population has no regular access to a clean
water supply to drink. Energy saving Community website notes that

Around a half of the world’s food supply comes from the
one-fifth of the cultivated land around the globe that is irrigated and keeping
up with that level of thirst makes huge demands on available resources. In some
parts of Europe alone, irrigation accounts for 80 per cent of total water usage.

Scarcity of water is not the only concern. One of the big
issues about water is our addition of phosphates to laundry detergents to soften
water, help break down dirt on fabrics, keep dirt from returning to fabrics and
provide alkalinity for better cleaning. Their use, however, has been attributed
to increased water pollution, leading manufacturers to develop phosphate-free
laundry products. And I wish I could get on with these especially
the eco balls that have come on the market – all tried and abandoned...how bad
is that?

9 comments:

Great post. I also posted today on global issues- health in my case, but availability of clean water is a major health issue in many parts of the world.No success either with the eco-balls!As I'm reading your post, rain is lashing against my window!

Started turning off the tap when my parents had a house with a water meter. Started donating to Water Aid a few months ago. People forget that just because we have water in this country doesn't mean it's not a problem. Great post, and theme for your a to z.thanks for sharingmartine

Water is So important. We used laundry balls for a while, they are hard to get. I'm thinking of making my own detergent.. no fragrances, very simple. Sometimes just washing in plain water gets out residues. I'm trying to visit all the A-Z Challenge Blogs this month.

Here in France, all water is metered and water rates are far cheaper than in the UK. However, the French are very water conscious. I'm not sure about the larger towns and cities, but certainly in the rural areas and smaller towns, everyone has large water butts, to use for watering the garden. Most rural properties have their own well and this water is often pumped up for use in toilets, dishwashers and washing machines, in addition to watering the garden.

We too have no bath, dishwasher etc and re-use as much water as possible eg washing up water on the plants at the kitchen door.

One anomaly which amuses me no end is that even when very stringent water controls are in force, you are allowed to water your vegetable garden, but not flowers, between 8.00pm and 6.00am!

We have used no chemicals and eco detergents etc for about 10 years now. An organic diet since 1992. Our daughter has now grown and has started work for a green company, and written her first book, about the history of sustainability in our city. So - it does work, talking to your kids and others about the situation! I'm very much with you on this one! Great blog.

If you are interested, I am blogging about endangered animals, I'm leaving you my A-Z link as bloggeralways identifies me as my shared blog with other poets - my A-Z is this one: http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com

This is wonderful! We're working on this in our house - recycling and being more conservative. Now that my son is in scouts he has taken an active interest in it, which has lead his younger sisters to do the same. Very neat and informative post! :)